Privacy Notice

Lotus Foster Care respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data that you supply to us and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

For the purpose of data protection laws, the data controller is Lotus Foster Care Ltd is responsible for making sure that as a fostering service we comply with our legal duties about collecting, keeping and sharing your personal data. Information relating to or queries concerning data protection should be directed to info@lotusfostercare.com

Lotus Foster Care Ltd collects, uses and is responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are regulated under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Data Controllers (such as Lotus Foster Care) inform Data Subjects via publishing a Privacy Policy or an overarching Privacy Notice. This Notice is our approach to communicating this information to you. It is important that you carefully read this notice.

How we obtain your data

We obtain personal data from various sources. When we obtain it from foster carers during the application process, we will continue to keep and use it if you are successful in your application. When we obtain data from you, we will be open around our intended use of your data – this will usually be in the form of a Privacy Notice. If you have any queries around the use of your data, please do not hesitate to raise this with us.

We will also obtain information from other sources, e.g. from referees during recruitment processes, from local authorities during referrals etc. Information relating to this should be communicated to you at the relevant points of time. For more information, contact us.

Get Site Control is a marketing attribution tool, which allows us to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and activities. Primarily, the tool tracks engagement on our website(s) via cookies. This may include capturing and processing personal data submitted via website forms. Analysis is carried out at an aggregate level and individuals’ personal data is anonymised where possible. View their here privacy policy

An overview of the categories of data that we process:

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data)

• Personal information (such as name, address, contact details, date of birth, gender, language)
• Special category characteristics (such as ethnicity, disability, religion and medical information)
• Contact Data -Such as telephone numbers, email address, home address
• Family details - contact details and relationships
• Financial information, such as bank details
• Safeguarding, special educational needs, physical and mental health
• Fostering records, assessment data, supervision notes, carer reviews, allegations etc.
• Technical Data - Such as internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access our website
• Profile Data - Such as your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses
• Marketing and Communications Data - Such as your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties, & your communication preferences.

Lotus Foster Care Ltd collects, uses and is responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are regulated under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

We will treat any personal data by which you can be identified in accordance with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulations and Data Protection Act 2018.

We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity.

If you fail to provide personal data

If you are registering your interest in our organisation, but do not provide us with relevant and accurate contact details, this will affect our ability to contact you in order to progress your enquiry and take steps to enter a potential contract with you (if applicable). We will therefore not be able to take your enquiry further.

How we use your personal data

We process your personal data to ensure that children and young people we place with foster carers are effectively supported to meet their educational, social and emotional needs. We regularly assess each child and young person’s situation and engage with foster carers to ensure they have the appropriate support, both from us and from the third parties who work with us.

To do that we need to collect, store and process a range of personal data from the people involved in supporting each child and young person, as well as their own personal data.

We will only use your personal data when permitted by law. Typically, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

• To perform a contract, we are about to enter – or have entered – with you. e.g. Foster Carer Agreement.
• police, courts, tribunals and security organisations
• data processors who work on our behalf (e.g. research companies, training providers, printing services etc.)
• healthcare professionals, social and welfare organisations
• independent persons working on our behalf (e.g. sessional support workers, independent review officers, panel members, independent social workers etc.)
• independent agencies, who may or may not work on your behalf (e.g. FosterTalk, the Independent Review Mechanism, Ombudsmen, Information Commissioners’ Office etc.)

Data Retention

Unless we notify you otherwise in writing, we will hold your personal information based on the following criteria:

• For as long as we have reasonable business needs, such as managing our relationship with you;
• For as long as someone could bring a claim against us; and
• Retention periods in line with legal and regulatory requirements or guidance

Data Rights

Under GDPR you have rights which you can exercise free of charge which allow you to:

• know what we are doing with your information and why we are doing it
• ask to see what information we hold about you (subject access request)
• ask us to correct any mistakes in the information we hold about you
• object to direct marketing
• make a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office
• withdraw consent at any time (if applicable).

Depending on our reason for using your information you may also be entitled to:

• ask us to delete information we hold about you
• have your information transferred electronically to yourself or to another organisation
• object to decisions being made that significantly affect you
• object to how we are using your information
• stop us using your information in certain ways.

We will always seek to comply with your request however we may be required to hold or use your information to comply with legal duties. Please note, your request may delay or prevent us delivering a service to you.

For further information about your rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the guidance from the UK Information Commissioners Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under GDPR.

If you would like to exercise a right, please contact Lotus Foster Care.

Keeping your personal information secure

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Use of Cookies

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Why do we use cookies?

We use first- and third-party cookies for several reasons. Some cookies are required for technical reasons for our Website to operate. Other cookies also enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our Online Properties. Third parties serve cookies through our Websites for advertising, analytics and other purposes. This is described in more detail below.

The specific types of first- and third-party cookies served through our Website and the purposes they perform are described below (please note that the specific cookies served may vary depending on the specific Online Properties you visit):

Which cookies does Lotus use?

How can I remove cookies?

We hope we’ve put your mind at ease about using cookies. Most computers are set to download cookies automatically, so if you’re happy with everything you’ve read, simply carry on as you were.

However, if you’re at all concerned about having cookies on your computer, deleting them is simple. Show me how to remove cookies.

Likewise, you can also change your computer settings so that it won’t download any more cookies. Show me how to change my cookies settings.

Please note: if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our website. Except for essential cookies, all cookies will expire after the session gets closed.

How to contact us and raising a concern

If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice, please contact info@lotusfostercare.co.uk or write to us at Data Protection Officer, Lotus Foster Care, Interchange House 81-85 Station Road, Croydon, CR0 2RD.

If you have a concern or complaint about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you should raise your concern with us in the first instance at the contact details above.

Following contact with us, if you remain dissatisfied please note that you have the right to raise a complaint with the ICO. Information on how to raise a complaint can be found at their website

Updates to policy

We may need to update this privacy notice periodically, so we recommend that you revisit this information from time to time. Last updated May 2020